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Exactly seven days after over 300 students were abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri in Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State, bandits have launched another deadly attack in Palaita community, Erena Ward, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. They abducted 24 people, including a pregnant woman, from a rice farm and chopped off the hand of a blind man. However, the Police said 10 people were kidnapped. The bandits also attacked a community in Abuja, and kidnapped six girls and a boy.
This happened as the Diocese of Kaduna, Anglican Communion, announced that Venerable Edwin Achi, Priest-in-Charge of Ebenezer Anglican Church, Ungwan Maijero, who was abducted on October 28, had died in kidnappers. The incident prompted the cancellation of the much-anticipated ‘Stand Up for Jesus 2025’ event.
Meanwhile, Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, yesterday, declared that the armed forces were closing in on eliminating bandits terrorising parts of the country, despite the recent resurgence of school abductions.
Coming on a day that the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, disclosed that 11,566 Police personnel withdrawn from VIP duties had been redeployed to under-served communities, Catholic Cardinal John Onaiyekan, urged the Federal Government to ensure quick solution to internal insecurity by adequately equipping officers on ground rather than relying on recruiting 20,000 policemen.
How bandits kidnapped 24 in Niger
A source in the community said the attackers struck at about 2:00pm on Wednesday while residents were harvesting their crops.
Despite Palaita being only five kilometres from a military base in Erena, the bandits reportedly escaped with the victims before security personnel could respond.
In a separate incident earlier that day, another group of armed men invaded the Kakuru community, also in Erena Ward, brutalised a blind resident and severed his right hand after taking a mobile phone from him.
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